When the "I've failed her" strip ran, you noted the apparent contradiction with the moment in the P&A "Headhunt" arc where Iseul, chronologically much later than that QUILTBAG scene, appears shocked at the news that Sara's gay. You assured us this would be explained in good time. So...what was the deal there?

Alice Macher wrote:When the "I've failed her" strip ran, you noted the apparent contradiction with the moment in the P&A "Headhunt" arc where Iseul, chronologically much later than that QUILTBAG scene, appears shocked at the news that Sara's gay. You assured us this would be explained in good time. So...what was the deal there?

Iseul was aware of Sara's leanings very early on, arguably before Sara herself was (Sara buried and almost forgot her brief crush on Penny, but Iseul sure didn't) and always figured finding the right guy was the "solution" to the "problem." As long as Sara wasn't out to her, she could keep throwing male prospects Sara's way and hope that one would eventually stick. After all, her own impulses toward women had been her own little secret until she found Theo, and that fixed everything, right? (I mean, sure, Elizabeth, but that was just a temporary aberration, and she's never going to do that again.)

And then suddenly that avenue to fix Sara's "problem" was closed. The rest of "Headhunt," after a single panel where Iseul watched (in her view) Sara's prospects for a happy sexual life seemingly disappear before her eyes, shows Iseul doubling down on the denial and mixing it with a ketchup squirt of angry frustration.

I might have been the only one, but I was really curious about Fiona. I thought she was a tricky character and a little hard to pin down. I liked that about her. I'm curious, what was the eventual plan with her character arc? What was she "all about," so to speak?

Ele wrote:I might have been the only one, but I was really curious about Fiona. I thought she was a tricky character and a little hard to pin down. I liked that about her. I'm curious, what was the eventual plan with her character arc? What was she "all about," so to speak?

Fiona was directly inspired by the fairly short-lived Internet meme "Friend Zone Fiona," which was itself inspired by the concept of the "friend zone" popularized by the TV series Friends. The idea's fairly simple: Boy is attracted to girl, boy tries to get close to girl, girl sees boy as platonic friend, girls's concept of their platonic relationship solidifies, boy cries self to sleep at night. Adjust genders as necessary.

While "being friendzoned" is certainly a phenomenon I've experienced, and there certainly are women who send plenty of mixed signals, the meme felt to me like it was flirting with "Nice Guy"-ism. I thought that letting a "Fiona" into Sara's life would be an important part of her education: here's someone who definitely gets Sara's hormones going and sometimes seems like she might be interested, but due to her essential flirtiness, Sara would have to settle for friendship, and eventually she'd realize that's not "settling" at all. It's not like Sara hasn't had other female friends, but they've never given her signals they might interested in "more," and as a result Sara's not really understood how inseparable the "more" should be from the friendship.

A good deal of that story arc made its way into "Q," but if the series had kept going, Fiona would've served Sara as a confidante and partner in relaxation, an alternative to Lisa, who would've had plenty of problems of her own.

Lisa's relationship history would've swung wildly, with each new relationship being something of a reaction to the previous one, the unbridled, dangerously passionate Jade followed by the self-controlled but ultimately controlling Steven. Her boldness gives her the courage and toughness to try many things that the slow, self-sabotaging Sara would not, but it would also enroll her early in the school of hard knocks, as was already pretty evident in "Q."

Lisa's relationship history would've swung wildly, with each new relationship being something of a reaction to the previous one, the unbridled, dangerously passionate Jade followed by the self-controlled but ultimately controlling Steven. Her boldness gives her the courage and toughness to try many things that the slow, self-sabotaging Sara would not, but it would also enroll her early in the school of hard knocks, as was already pretty evident in "Q."

Interesting.. In what ways would Sara self-sabotage her own relationship?

And will they learn from each other?

And for an unrelated question for fun; currently, if you can send any of your characters within P&A and QUILTBAG's universe to other webcomics a-la Helen, who would you send and where? What about the reverse? (adopting a character from other webcomics)

Lisa's relationship history would've swung wildly, with each new relationship being something of a reaction to the previous one, the unbridled, dangerously passionate Jade followed by the self-controlled but ultimately controlling Steven. Her boldness gives her the courage and toughness to try many things that the slow, self-sabotaging Sara would not, but it would also enroll her early in the school of hard knocks, as was already pretty evident in "Q."

Interesting.. In what ways would Sara self-sabotage her own relationship?

And will they learn from each other?

And for an unrelated question for fun; currently, if you can send any of your characters within P&A and QUILTBAG's universe to other webcomics a-la Helen, who would you send and where? What about the reverse? (adopting a character from other webcomics)

After determining she was indeed stronger than her hormones, Sara would've swung around to overintellectualizing relationships, trying too hard to engineer things. The two would've learned from each other eventually, but not before a period of alienation and strong tension.

If I were to export a character at this point... I did briefly consider putting the whole QUILTBAG universe in someone else's hands, but the people I'd actually want to do it are all too busy with their own stuff. The adult Lisa might be fun in Menage a 3, but she's already shown up there as a teenager so that causes too many problems.

So I'd say that I'd just give David Willis the option to use a Penny and Aggie/QUILTBAG character or two in Dumbing of Age, if he feels so inclined. He can do the "different universe means a revised character biography" thing that we've both practiced when characters from one of our strips show up in another, or he can keep the DoA version consistent with the P&A/Q one. Given Willis' compelling interest in religion, I think it'd be fascinating to see what he did with Jack and Katy-Ann. The fact that Katy's about as devout as Joyce yet so different in so many ways would make for an intriguing meeting, at least. Leah's particular type of discrimination might be interesting in his hands, too, but I don't know if she fits in so well with the DoA cast. Depends on where this Billie-Ruth thing is going. Actually, given Leslie's current state, Leah might find her a somewhat willing audience in Shortpacked.

As for me, well, I don't really have a strip to import characters into right now besides Guilded Age, and we definitely don't need any more permanent additions to that one (I won't say whether Shanna's got a long-term gig there or not). If I'd imported anyone into Penny and Aggie permanently, it probably would've been Annarchy from Penny Arcade. If we want to borrow somebody temporarily-- like the Hijinks Ensue guys in Guilded Age-- we just swipe 'em quick while no one's looking.

Ameyal wrote:This probably has been asked before, but I'm curious... and lazy to search, but...

Obviously, Aggie, Katty-Ann and Lisa dye their hairs, so... what are their natural hair colors?

Does anyone else in the cast dyes their hair? (Natural colors or like them)When they started to do so? When(if) are they gonna stop?

Any other character experimented with dyes, piercings or tattoos?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... who will be the first to have gray hair?

At the time of "The Popsicle War," Lynda has been putting a little more blonde color in there for the last couple of years, and she'll keep going with that (a little more, and a little more, as much as it takes to keep the color constant as she naturally whitens) for most of the rest of her life.

Lisa is the only one who will play around with piercings on a place that isn't her ears.

Sara, Lisa and Katy-Ann started in their early teens. By the time of "Six Septembers Later," Aggie has already stopped and Katy-Ann has suspended it for her pregnancies. Katy-Ann will resume, and she and Lisa will continue well into adulthood.

Nick already has gray hairs during his first appearance, but don't tell him you noticed.

Rowan Hawthorn wrote:This has probably also been asked before, but I couldn't find it: Was Sara's partner at the time of "Six Septembers Later" anyone we'd already seen, and if so, who?

Also, not meaning to be a pain, but anything new on the collected strips front?

No and no. To be honest, until I get into a position with a publisher who can churn out those books comfortably and push them to a brand-new audience as well as the existing one, new print collections are going to be focused on Guilded Age. I don't really have the resources to make the Penny and Aggie volumes a valid return on investment: the readers were very loyal, but the percentage who bought books was small relative to the GA audience. When I talked about this last time, there was reason to think a publisher and I would have comics-related news soon, but right now On Crosswords is my big work on that front.